UN Interviews

War in Sudan between rival militaries has been raging for 19 months, uprooting well over 11 million people both inside Sudan and beyond and leaving a staggering 24.8 million people in need of assistance.

In addition to the struggle for survival, investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva have warned that women and girls have been subjected to large-scale sexual violence, gang-rape, abduction and detention akin to sexual slavery.

To find out more about this disturbing development, UN News’s Nancy Sarkis sat down with Mona Rishmawi, member of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, who told her a battle is “being fought on the bodies of women.”

The start of the war in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October was “like an avalanche” that caught the international community by surprise, including the UN, the senior official leading peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians recalled this week.

Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, sat down for an exclusive interview with UN News’s Reem Abaza as he prepares to leave the post after four years and following decades of service with Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Mr. Wennesland discusses the aftermath of the escalation in Gaza, prospects for a two-State solution despite attempts at undermining it, and why the international community must take the lead in helping the sides to reach a resolution. 

Members of the international community must unite and take stronger, coordinated action against the military junta in Myanmar, which overthrew the elected government in February 2021.

This is the view of the Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, who was appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to monitor and report on the situation in the country.

While individual countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union (EU) bloc have imposed sanctions which have had some impact, Mr. Andrews told UN News’ Vibhu Mishra that these actions remain insufficient and disjointed.

Mr. Andrews began by reflecting on how the situation has changed compared with the last time he spoke to UN News, a year ago.

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is centre stage in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah this week, where top health officials have been attending the Fourth Global High-Level Ministerial Meeting on these so-called superbugs which have become increasingly resistant to existing strains of antibiotics.

Threatening to make the medicines on which we depend less effective, AMR is already responsible for killing 1.3 million people every year.

Attending the conference, Hanan Balkhy – a physician who is one of the World Health Organization’s senior officials leading the charge against AMR – told UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri that “awareness is one of the global action plan pillars” which need to be strengthened. 

Explosive remnants of war, including artillery shells, rockets, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), pose a grave threat to civilians everywhere – but especially children in Gaza, now and in the years ahead, according to the Chief of Programme Management with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

Taku Kubo spoke with UN News about the challenges these hazards present for long-term recovery and reconstruction in the region.

Despite ongoing conflict and resource constraints, UNMAS has conducted close to 400 explosive hazard assessments and accompanied more than 270 humanitarian convoys as part of the aid effort.

Mr. Kubo spoke to UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki. 

As the war in Lebanon grinds on, some 1.3 million people have now fled intense Israeli bombardment up and down the country, according to the authorities.

This includes a significant number of Syrian refugees, who’ve already had to flee over a decade of civil war in their own country.

Reaching Syria is by no means easy, because of the very real risk of bombing at border crossing points; and then there’s the question of how safe it is to return to Syria’s towns and cities.

With more on this – and how the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is helping returnees at Lebanon’s borders in cooperation with the Syrian Government – here’s Rula Amin, Senior Communications Advisor for UNHCR, speaking to UN News’s Nancy Sarkis.

The number of prisoners in Iran being executed is rising while civic space shrinks, according to the independent human rights expert who monitors the country.

Special Rapporteur Mai Sato was at UN Headquarters last week briefing the General Assembly, where she highlighted lack of transparency by authorities in Tehran and the failure to uphold the right to life, while also raising the alarm over the worsening situation facing women in the country.

In an interview with UN News’s Julia Foxen, the UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert who only took up her role in August this year, explained how she hopes to fulfill her mandate and hold authorities to account.

As the Democratic Republic of the Congo enters its third decade of armed conflict, a huge number of unexploded land mines and other ordinance remain, constituting a deadly threat to civilians.

That’s according to Jean-Denis Larsen, the chief of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the central African nation, who told UN News’s Julia Foxen in an interview at UN Headquarters in New York, that the danger leaves less land available for housing and crucial civilian infrastructure.

The key measure of success, he says, is the agency’s ability to hand back safe environments to communities.

Countries around the world are being encouraged to develop more ambitious plans to fight climate change as they meet at the global COP29 climate conference; That’s according to the Secretary-General of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Celeste Saulo spoke with UN News as the conference got underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.

Some 198 States are coming together to assess global efforts in advancing the nearly ten-year-old Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The country-specific plans are called Nationally Determined Contributions.

Nazrin Babayeva asked Ms. Saulo about the WMO’s role today in adapting and mitigating climate change on a global scale. 

The armed conflict in Myanmar is escalating. Ethnic armed groups have captured key towns and regions, and the country’s military – known as the Tatmadaw – are employing increasingly brutal tactics, including heavy weapons and airstrikes.

Caught in the middle, civilians are bearing the brunt.

Against this background, UN News’ Vibhu Mishra spoke with Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), which monitors and collects evidence of crimes in the country.

He said as violence intensifies, new actors and alliances are emerging – and it’s incumbent on the international community to act.

Established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2018, the IIMM is mandated to collect and preserve evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law and prepare files for criminal prosecution.

Previous interviews with IIMM:

• Myanmar: Technology key to aid war crimes investigations
• Myanmar citizens show ‘great desire’ for justice: Investigative Mechanism chief
• For head of Myanmar Mechanism, time is of the essence for accountability